Quick it Girl: Please READ!

A quick note to "Quick It Girl"I just wanted to say that I couldn't comment on your posts because it wouldn't let me, whenever I clicked post comment, the place to write a comment never comes up. So when you said, "P.s : Where have all my friends gone? :,(" on your latest post I felt really guilty about not telling you that commenting doesn't work, cuz I've been reading all your posts 'silently' lol. So maybe check the comment enabling or something, I'm not sure :(

How small we are.

Sometimes in life, there are roadblocks or stops in the way. Obstacles and sadness preventing you from going on. From living. And maybe all of life is like that. One roadblock after another. No space to breathe, from all the tears and sorrow. Somehow life keeps going on though. Somehow the clocks never seem to stop no matter how much you feel like hiding or dying. It never makes sense, the way life brings so many questions and yet somehow no answers. Confusion is always there, like a bad dream, or worse-a reality. Sometimes I just feel like quitting, like giving up my race against time. Waving the white flag of surrender. But there's always someone pushing you to do better, standing there for you to lie your head against, even though they might not seem to be there. Life goes on, people learn to accept. You can't judge a future by your past. Can't apply your mistakes to your present. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow isn't here yet. Live for today. If you died this minute what would you have wished you could've done? Think. And now get up and do it. Whether it's calling an old friend or wearing the hijab. It's not worth wasting any time. Your future is not certain and the past has already happened. The truth is evident, all you need to do, is open your eyes and look around you. Look at the trees, the birds, the sun, the people that make your life worth living. There's a purpose in everything. There isn't a single drop of water that fall down, without Allah's knowledge. The world would not survive a fracture of a milisecond without Allah. Everything and everyone is completley dependant on Him, whether we realize it or not. He gave us the choice of belief. He let us choose to follow or stray. But in the end, everything we do is counted for. There isn't a single person in the world who lies at night and doesn't think about what he's done. There isn't a person who doesn't have a heart, who doens't have a concious. Every person knows right from wrong, and whether they choose to aknowledge that or not, it's there. Life keeps going. Everything we go through is a test. One day for Allah (s.w.t) equals one thousand years of what we count. So how long have we lived in this life? 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 120? That's still not even ONE day in Allah (s.w.t)'s measurements for the Hereafter. So imagine how SMALL humans are. How tiny we are in this world. Imagine how small our problems are compared to the turmoil and torture of the Day of Judgement. With every tick of the clock we are a second closer to the end. So, if you died this minute what would you have wished you could've done? Think. And now get up and do it.

Little mosque

AHHHHH!!! i just finished watching all of Little mosque and the last episode made me cry, it's so beautiful and sad andddd i'm not ruining it for those of you who haven't finished watching it yet :P
By the way do any of you know if there are any more seasons coming up? This show can't end!!! :((

Flying thoughts

A thought been running around in my head ever since I started watching Little mosque on the Prairie. It's funny how people can never know how they'll be introduced to Islam. Like the actors in Little mosque. Most of them aren't muslims but through their acting careers they've been exposed to the truth. So... technically if they don't convert/revert to Islam they could be punished for knowing the truth and yet not practicing it. And also these non-muslim actors have "lived as muslims" for a while through the show, so I wonder how they react when they hear people insulting muslims or when they see a muslimah walking down the street. They'd know all the little crevices and ways of being a muslim, and I just think that's so amazing. I mean if you think about it, it makes sense....Like if I could interview Rayyan (Sitara hewitt) I would just ask about her feelings about Islam before and after she was in this show. For some actors, maybe through this show they've gotten rid of "bad" islamic perspectives. I mean they're only humans so who knows how they thought about Islam before actually being a character in Little Mosque. Anyways I probably just lost everyone with my train of thoguhts :P. Oh, and for those who don't know what Little Mosque is visit this website and watch all the episodes: http://watchlittlemosque.com, I prefer it over Youtube, just because the episodes and seasons are more complete. Sorry i've been away from blogger for a while it feels good to be back :)
Basically I've been a silent reader of most of the blogs, gaining knowledge from the posts my muslim sisters & brothers are writing. It's hard to believe that before blogging I didn't know as much about Islam as I do now. I mean I prayed and fasted and did all that, but I didn't really understand alot about it. Like some issues about certain, more complex things in Islam really cleared up after I saw so many muslimahs talking about it and clearing their heart out. So this is a virtual thank you shout to all my fellow sisters. "luv ya all!"
Hope you're all enjoying life, and Islam. and are in the best of health and iman.

Lol that rhymed 'Hope you're all enjoying life, and Islam. and are in the best of health and iman. "

Blog Make-over (well...only the background!)

Teehee I've been playing around with the blog background so much now a whole hour spent on deciding which background to keep. And my sweet blog friend Quick it Girl commented on the change and then found out that I kept changing it and so she had go back and update her comment :P sorry about that!! lol. feeling so much better lately thanks so much to everyone in blogsphere!
What do you think about the background and header picture (of hajj at the top) shoudl I keep it or change it some more?

Sadness and writers block

I want to cry. It's one of those times where I can't get the thoughts in my head and heart out on the blog. Maybe I'll be able to some other time. But for now. i'm sorry. I don't even understand what's going on, let alone trying to put my feelings in words. So I promise I'll spill everything out tomorrow.
Hope you're all in the best of health and iman. and thanks so much muneera for the sweet post you wrote.

What is it good fo'? absolutely nothin'!

I'm getting more and more sure that Bryan needs Islam. I know it. He is completely lost. In orchestra today he was really ticked and hadn't gotten over the break up with his girlfriend. And he was also dressed in a suit and tie. Why? Because he had a court case. My God. But when Essence and I asked him what was wrong, he handed us a poem he'd written and told us to read it. I don't remember it all, but it was the sweetest, saddest thing ever. The only line I remember really well is this:
"When I say 'Oh I'm fine' I want someone to look into my eyes and say 'tell the truth'.
That made my eyes burn and I was about to start crying. Because I write the same thing in my poems. I knew exactly what he meant. Bryan was always careful to hide his feelings. But that poem was amazing. I didn't know he could write that well. The poem also made me positive to get Islam across to him. Islam, because it prohibited him from doing all the things that made teachers, others and even himself categorize him into the "bad people" category. It fit in perfectly.
Islam forbids drugs and alcohol. Something he drinks sometimes, but hates.
Islam doesn't allow dating. A habit he wants to break loose of.
Islam doesn't allow stealing. Bryan doesn't steal! he doesn't even take money even for a beat.
I remember something he said once about money. Zach (an 8th grader in our class) had told Bryan that he'd bet money on something. Bryan said no. So Zach said OK then I'll just give you the money. And Bryan burst, he said "I don't like money! It's what got me into all the trouble I've been in since I was 10!"
Somethings people say just stay in mind, and this is one of them. Continuing my list:

Islam forbids hanging out with bad people. Bryan has gotten involved with gangs at one point.
And so many other things I could sit and list. Bryan NEEDS Islam and I'm going to get it across to him no matter what. He says 'Nothing good happens in his life' but he's wrong. His life CAN change. It can.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We watched a slide show in history today about the Vietnam War. And the song the teacher used in the background was "What is it good fo'? absolutely nothin'!" And it just made me think so much about stuff in life. Like so many things are good for nothing but we still do them. It really doesn't make a difference.This time, my long walk from schooll to home was not a really thought-provoking one. I just kinda walked and didn't think about anything because I don't want to. I just want to escape out of my thoughts and into the world of dreams. In Spanish, we're working on a project, making poster boards about a certaincountry of our choice for International Night at school. I chose to do it on Iraq just cuz I was born there, but now I really regret it. Just because googling "Iraq" on images doesn't get me anything I want, but war pictures and troops. It's not fair. And then what completely ticked me off was when a friend googled "Iraq" supposedly trying to help me, she was like "AWH! I googled Iraq on images and look what came up!" she says obnoxiously pointing to injured people that were victims of the war.
"And you think I don't know this stuff?!??" I reply.
She turns aways mumbling sorry and inside I was saying,
"Yea, my mom ran under bombs being dropped holding on to my baby brother trying to run to safety, while my dad was living hell too. Actually they were both living there then, the wars and things they've seen are miserable."

But really does it make any difference what I think? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how hell-ish life was for my parents, it doesn't matter how much they've endured. Years ago, while people here (U.S.) were crying about not getting the dress/outfits they wanted,my dad and my mom were crammed into a basement trying to be invulnerable to the bombs and shooting with no food to eat, and my mom was pregenant with my brother (her first child), in the midst of all the bombing and war. that's why it gets me mad when people complain about the stupidest things ever, or are really obnoxious and stuck up. *sigh*
Anyways I had to get that out, it was really bothering me badly. I hope everyone is doing well and is in the best of health and iman.
Wa alaikom al salam.

Rambles and more rambles

My patience is completely GONE from people insulting Islam. I'm tiered of going on Youtube and other videos and reading comments that are nothing but prejudice and mean words, or not even just youtube, but other hateful websites. I don't get it. Do people have nothing better to do than insult a religion?! And above that, the TRUE religion. The RIGHT religion. The JUST and most NOBLE religion there is. Islam. I mean. For the people that only like to insult then this is a shout to ya'll :
"GO GET A LIFE FOR GOD'S SAKE!" lol. sorry I had to get that out. I'm just fed up with it. And then what's up with the stupid remarks anyways?? I get them alot because of my hijab. Here:
"Do you get HOT in that?"
"Did your parents FORCE you to wear it?"
"ARE YOU MARRIED?" (!!!)
"Do you EVER take it off?"
"Do you sleep with it?"
"Do you take a shower with it on?"
"Will you take it off next year?"
And my personal favorite...
"What would you do if I pulled it off your head?"
and "Do you speak English?"
or "Wow. You don't have an accent in english."
GOODNESS GRACIOUS! I mean...uh what am I supposed to say to them? I know this is old and stuff but it's STILL driving me INSANE. I've been getting these STUPID UN LOGICAL questions since day 1 of the hijab. And I'm quite fed up with the non-sense.
As you can see, I've had a very iffy day. (haha iffy!) isn't that such a cool word?
'nyways
I Apologize so much for being away from the blog for a while (not that long!) but of course blogger is ADDICTING and my friends are driving me crazy asking me to get a Facebook. BUT I REFUSE TO GET A FACEBOOK! I HATE FACEBOOK. I WILL NOT BE ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK.
omygosh you guys...
your comments made me cry on my last post about memorizing the Quran cuz they were TOO SWEET! Special thanks to Solace in Islam and Muslimah2Muslimah for suggesting imaanstar.com.
I just downloaded it and it seems AMAZING! :) thanks again.
Oh, and Quick It Girl for that sweet video of an 8 year old who'd memorized all the Quran :) Very inspirational. Got me excited to learn the Quran by heart :) thanks!

Memorizaton tool

Recently I was looking around on other blogs and I came upon one called Celestial Hope/Dunya Rants. The first post I read was "I wanna become a hafiza". Jaz-the blogger wrote about wanting to memorize the Quran and she provided a really cool way to keep track of what she's memorized. She bolded all the surahs she's memorized. So...I'm sortof gonna steal her idea since I've posted before about wanting to memorize the Quran and use it too. (Hope that's ok Jaz!) :) My list is something like this:

1. Al-Fatihah
   
2. Al-Baqarah
3. Al-'Imran
   
4. An-Nisa'
5. Al-Ma'idah
   
6. Al-An'am
7. Al-A'raf
   
8. Al-Anfal
   
9. Al-Bara'at
   
10. Yunus
    
11. Hud
12. Yusuf
    
13. Ar-Ra'd
    
14. Ibrahim
15. Al-Hijr
    
16. An-Nahl
    
17. Bani Isra'il
    
18. Al-Kahf
    
19. Maryam
20. Ta Ha
21. Al-Anbiya'
22. Al-Hajj
23. Al-Mu'minun
    
24. An-Nur
    
25. Al-Furqan
26. Ash-Shu'ara'
27. An-Naml
28. Al-Qasas
29. Al-'Ankabut
    
30. Ar-Rum
31. Luqman
32. As-Sajdah
    
33. Al-Ahzab
34. Al-Saba'
35. Al-Fatir
36. Ya Sin
37. As-Saffat
38. Sad
39. Az-Zumar
40. Al-Mu'min
    
41. Ha Mim
42. Ash-Shura
43. Az-Zukhruf
44. Ad-Dukhan
45. Al-Jathiyah
    
46. Al-Ahqaf
    
47. Muhammad
    
48. Al-Fath
49. Al-Hujurat
50. Qaf
    
51. Ad-Dhariyat
    
52. At-Tur
53. An-Najm
54. Al-Qamar
55. Ar-Rahman
56. Al-Waqi'ah
57. Al-Hadid
58. Al-Mujadilah
59. Al-Hashr
60. Al-Mumtahanah
    
61. As-Saff
    
62. Al-Jumu'ah
63. Al-Munafiqun
64. At-Taghabun
65. At-Talaq
66. At-Tahrim
67. Al-Mulk
    
68. Al-Qalam
    
69. Al-Haqqah
70. Al-Ma'arij
    
71. Nuh
72. Al-Jinn
73. Al-Muzzammil
74. Al-Muddaththir
    
75. Al-Qiyamah
76. Al-Insan
77. Al-Mursalat
    
78. An-Naba'
79. An-Nazi'at
80. 'Abasa
81. At-Takwir
82. Al-Infitar
83. At-Tatfif
    
84. Al-Inshiqaq
85. Al-Buruj
86. At-Tariq
    
87. Al-A'la
88. Al-Ghashiyah
89. Al-Fajr
90. Al-Balad
    
91. Ash-Shams
    
92. Al-Layl
    
93. Ad-Duha
94. Al-Inshirah
95. At-Tin
96. Al-'Alaq
    
97. Al-Qadr
98. Al-Bayyinah
    
99. Al-Zilzal
100. Al-'Adiyat
101. Al-Qari'ah
102. At-Takathur
     
103. Al-'Asr
104. Al-Humazah
     
105. Al-Fil
106. Al-Quraish
107. Al-Ma'un
     
108. Al-Kauthar
     
109. Al-Kafirun
110. An-Nasr
111. Al-Lahab
112. Al-Ikhlas
     
113. Al-Falaq
114. An-Nas

So hopefully each time I memorize a new surah I'll re-post this list and highlight the new ones :)

Thoughts from the heart 2

I walked into the orchestra room for class. We were going to be watching "The Pink Panther" because it was a Friday and we weren't going to play our instruments. We all sat down on the floor- our class consists of me, Essence (a close friend), a boy named Zach, a boy named Zaw, a baoy named Abbass (another Islam ditcher), a boy named Chad, a girl named Quamiya and a girl named Dontasia. And 10 minutes late as usual was Bryan. I say "as usual" for his tardiness because he always walks his girlfriend to class and then he comes to Orchestra. But anyways, after we settle down and start watching Pink Panther, Bryan gets drowsy. After some questions, Essence and I discover that he's drunk. DRUNK. And he's like 14 years old. In the morning he had put beer in his soda bottle, and drank it all, except for a little bit. I take the bottle of beer and soda and throw it in the trashcan, with him telling me not to. Essence and I test just how drunk he is by asking him to point to his nose or say the ABC's. He can't. Instead of touching his nose, he touches his cheeks or mouth. Oh God! Are you kidding me?! Drunk at 14? Me and Essence do all knds of things like puch him to see if he can feel or make him count to 10. Then I look over at Essence and tell her, "I hope this will make you think twice before you ever drink in the future."
"Ya, or else I might end up like this retard over here," she says pointing to brayan.
I say something like, " I mean am I the only one who's in a religion where all kinds of drugs and alcohol are forbidden?!"
Essence says, "Well no, like drugs are forbidden in Christianity and stuff but they say red wine is good for you or somehting because it has antioxidants or something like that..."
Then I go into this whole discussion about being able to find antioxidants in other things so why red wine?
Then the drunk person A.K.A bryan looks over and says that he's a Christian too.
Essence says, " Umm...nno you're not, they'd like kick you out of Church if you said that. I mean you're DRUNK!"
Then I say, " I'm glad muslims aren't even allowed to drink and go on drugs."
Bryan says," I have to try that religion."
he was drunk. And I'm sure he didn't even mean it. But still. There might be hope.

~~~~~~ An hour later~~~~~

I walk down to the gym for P.E. class and later wish I hadn't. The teachers had gathered all 60-some or more boys and girls on the bleachers. You know how boys and girls have like certain "cliques" they're in, well that's what it's like. The boys mainly have 2 cliques: "The cool pervs that hang around chics" and the "uncool, unpopular/nerds". But it's really wrong, because most of the boys who end up in the "uncool" group are really actually cool. They're nice and funny. But they don't know that. Luis was one of the many that had been sorted automatically in the 'uncool/nerdy" group. Which isn't true for him because when I got to know him in the beggening of the school year, my first reaction was "Wow! he's so funny and awesome!" But now he's totally changed like most eveyrone has. He wants to be "cooler " and hang out with the "cool" little "chics" and the "cool" pervert boys. This is the worst thing he's ever done. Today in gym he came over to the girls and started giving them numbers. Numbers that rated them on THEIR BODY PARTS. What the hell?! WHy would someone do that? I mean....
And the worst problem is half the girls enjoyed it, and some really didn't care. Like when a girl got called to go up to the office for early dissmissal, Luis yelled across the gym "BE PROUD OF YOUR 6!"
And she laughed. She didn't try to scorn or ignore him, Nothing.
And I wasn't excluded from this body part "rating" either. My hijab and loose jeans and jacket didn't do anything. It didn't stop them from degrading me. So I wonder what happens to the girls dressed in tight, tight jeans and body-hugging shirts.
It just pissed me off-it made me absolutley FURIOUS that these boys- these "supposedly cool" boys filled their time with games like these. How true the words of Allah (s.w.t) were when He says,
"And tell the believing women to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts) and not to show off their adornment except only that which is apparent (like both eyes for necessity to see the way, or outer palms of hands or one eye or dress like veil, gloves, headcover, apron), and to draw their veils all over Juyoobihinna (i.e. their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms) and not to reveal their adornment except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband’s fathers, or their sons, or their husband’s sons, or their brothers or their brother’s sons, or their sister’s sons, or their (Muslim) women (i.e. their sisters in Islam), or the (female) slaves whom their right hands possess, or old male servants who lack vigour, or small children who have no sense of feminine sex. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And all of you beg Allaah to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be successful”

[al-Noor 24:31]